


No Quarrel with a Boot

by Ysabetwordsmith



Series: Love Is For Children [59]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Anxiety, Artificial Intelligence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Past Animal Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Shyness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysabetwordsmith/pseuds/Ysabetwordsmith
Summary: Phil finds Loki watching Tony's AI ant farm.
Relationships: Phil Coulson & Loki
Series: Love Is For Children [59]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/42722
Comments: 35
Kudos: 202
Collections: August Intimacy - September Stragglers 2020





	No Quarrel with a Boot

**Author's Note:**

> Here is the perk poem for the $1000 stretch goal in the [September half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics](https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/5905814.html). This poem is spillover from the August 4, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Dreamwidth User Starbit. It also fills the "worries or anxieties" square in [my 8-1-20 card](https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/12611270.html) for the Five Moments of Intimacy Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series [Love Is For Children](https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/9744636.html).

While Thor bounded about the Tower  
like a large dog jumping on people,  
Loki ghosted through it like an alley cat.

No matter how much Phil tried  
to keep an eye on Loki, he slipped  
though the shadows and out of view --  
unless Phil resorted to actual surveillance,  
which rather defeated the purpose of  
helping Loki feel more at home here.

As hard as it was to find him on purpose,  
sometimes Phil stumbled across Loki  
while not even looking for him.

Today Phil found Loki in  
the common room, holding  
a holo of something in his hands  
and peering intently at the image.

"Good morning, Loki," said Phil  
as he came into the common room.

Loki whirled around at the sound,  
banishing the holo as he put  
his hands behind his back. 

Well, that was concerning.

"Were you just looking at  
Tony's ant farm?" Phil asked. 

"I wasn't doing -- I wouldn't  
hurt them, they're just _ants,_  
they -- they weren't bothering  
anything, don't -- just don't --"  
Loki's protests choked off.

 _An ant has no quarrel with  
a boot,_ Phil recalled, with  
a sudden queasy suspicion  
about Loki's curiosity and  
Odin's response to insect life. 

"It's quite a nice ant farm,"  
Phil said mildly. "I enjoy  
watching it myself sometimes.  
Would you like to see me feed them?" 

"They are constructs, not actual insects,"  
Loki said dryly. "They do not require food." 

"Sure they do," Phil said. "Usually  
JARVIS takes care of them, but  
I learned how to do it too." 

In fact, they were quicklife ants,  
artificial life generated by a program  
that Tony had written in grade school,  
then later refined and expanded before  
moving on to artificial intelligence.

So the ants had survival needs  
just like ordinary ones did,  
only in a different form.

Phil swept a hand across  
the coffee table, summoning  
a luminous blue keyboard. 

Carefully, his right hand  
tapped out the command  
for the 'breadcrumbs' routine,  
while his left set the intensity. 

JARVIS displayed the ant farm,  
sprinkling bright green crumbs of  
energy along one edge of the screen. 

The amber ants quickly discovered  
the motes of food and formed lines  
to transport them back home. 

"Fascinating," Loki breathed.  
He leaned forward until his nose  
nearly touched the display. 

"Would you like to water them?"  
Phil offered, waving at the keyboard.

Loki gazed at him for a long moment,  
then gave a hesitant nod. "How?" 

Phil typed another command to set up  
the routine, then said, "First touch  
this key here. Then touch the place  
where you want to put the water." 

Loki obeyed, and a dripping blue sponge  
appeared at the far end of the ant colony. 

"It will take a while for them to find it  
all the way out there," Phil pointed out. 

"I know," Loki said as he rested his chin  
in his hand, settling down to wait.

Maybe that was what he needed,  
peace and quiet to sit and watch  
the ants, without worrying that  
anyone would take a boot to them.

"Do you mind if I sit with you and  
watch the ants too?" Phil asked.

Loki peeked at him through  
a curtain of long dark hair.

"I quite like ants," Phil said.  
"I used to watch them as a boy.  
They're curious, and diligent,  
and their teamwork is amazing."

Maybe he should set up exercises  
for the Avengers or the SHEILD agents  
that would require similar coordination  
to move heavy or bulky objects.

There was that embarrassing clip  
from early on when Captain America  
and Iron Man had tried to move  
an empty bus to clear a bridge but  
wound up dropping it in the Hudson.

"... you may stay," Loki said.

Phil felt like the ant who  
discovered the ice cream cone.

**Author's Note:**

> [Artificial life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_life), sometimes called quicklife, includes [ants](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.442.444&rep=rep1&type=pdf) and other [evolutionary models](http://web.cs.ucla.edu/~dyer/Papers/AlifeTracker/Alife91Jefferson.html).
> 
> [Harming animals often coincides](https://awionline.org/content/facts-and-myths-about-domestic-violence-and-animal-abuse) with other forms of domestic violence. Witnessing animal abuse [undermines the mental health of children](https://psmag.com/news/the-effects-of-witnessing-animal-abuse-on-the-mental-health-of-children).


End file.
